I used to use standalone, but got so frustrated because of poor update and silly bugs. The browser based TWS is always the latest. Started using browser based TWS was good until last month, however it takes ages to come up lately after I logged in. Mind you IB platform is one of the poor and less user friendly platform out of all out there. TWS charting software is terrible, supports only handcount indicators/studies half of them are flexible. I use Thinkorswim, MBtrading, lightspeed, charles schwab for trading. Why I still use IB ? l use IB platform to execute orders only because IB comm is very low and comparable with lightspeed.
P.S Be careful with IB customer support, they are very rude and cold when answering requests.